Reply With QuoteIt seems unusual that it never burned - but man destroyed anyway...
The Demolished and Targeted-for-Demolition Building Thread
This building looked interesting:
Historic Oak Cliff Hotel Being Razed for New Structure
September 10, 1945, Dallas Morning News, Sec. I, p. 2, col. 1-4.
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.co...marks4145.html
An historic landmark is coming down in Oak Cliff with the wrecking of the old Forest Inn, fifty-five room hotel that has stood almost sixty years at Jefferson and Crawford.
Modern brick store buildings probably will replace the sturdy frame building, John M. Stemmons, real estate developer, said. It will take about ten weeks to tear down the hotel that was fashionable in the Gay Nineties.
The destruction is a tough job, Jack Haake, wrecking contractor, said. Despite its age, the building is so well built, that much time is being required to take it apart. The lumber is of the best grade and much of it still is in good condition, Haake said. Scores of huge 2x6 planks, thirty-two feet long, were used in the building, and that timber is in excellent condition.
Built By Marsalis
The hotel was picturesque as built in 1889 by T. L. Marsalis, pioneer in Oak Cliff development. It once was known as the Cliff Hotel, and for many years, was a Dallas showplace. It contained one of the largest public dining rooms in the Southwest during its heyday.
The hotel was the scene of fashionable dinners and other gatherings in the Nineties. During this period, the Opera House and old pavilion were located at what was known as Forest Park, now Marsalis Park, and a narrow-gauge railroad operated between Dallas and Oak Cliff. Soon, however, the hotel became the home of the Oak Cliff Female Institute. The school became widely known, and in 1900, the name was changed to Eminence College.
Again Becomes School
In 1903, the school was abandoned and the hotel, again, opened after a thorough modernization. Forest Park became the scene of large gatherings in the summer, and in the evenings, there were band concerts and often opera performances. Show people stopped at the hotel.
In 1912, the hotel, again, became a school, as the home of the Oak Cliff College. The college was operated under direction of J. B. Dodson. The college was short lived, and in 1915, the building, again, became a hotel. After renovation, it was renamed Forest Inn. Another renovation came in 1919 to make it a family hotel.
In recent years, Forest Inn was the home of many teachers assigned to faculties of Oak Cliff schools. Tenants started moving from the building last December, when it was decided to destroy the landmark.
A landmark passes...The Cliff Hotel was a Dallas showplace (top photo) during the Gay Nineties. But now the fine old frame hotel, later known as Forest Inn, is being torn down (lower picture) at Jefferson and Crawford.
It seems unusual that it never burned - but man destroyed anyway...
Cool 18-carat gold leaf bas-relief murals that were destroyed (1980) inside the Fort Worth Greater Southwest International Airport terminal. It would have been a cool art deco inspired building to see.
This hanger reminds me a bit of the AAC:
Last edited by dfwcre8tive; 22 March 2007 at 05:06 PM.
They destroyed -- THAT???
DAGNABBIT!
It never really 'took-off' as an airport --- I remember going there as a kid for the Confederate Air Force Shows (circa 1970-71) and it was pretty much already abandoned and some of the windows broken out...DFW was a few years away.
Kind of sad that the B-17 and B-25 which flew around Dallas last week are so rare that there are only handfuls left in the world. Back at those airshows, rich guys who flew them in the war were actually still flying them and keeping them in shape.
I wonder if anyone saved any of the art work at GSW.
The "Magic of Flight" mural was destroyed. The same artist created relief murals for the Hall of State / Texas Centennial and some for the Mercantile Bank building. It should have been saved and incorporated into some development in Centreport or other Forth Worth municipal structure / museum.Originally Posted by Lakewooder
The postcard's caption read: "This famous bas-relief at Dining Room Entrance was executed by James Buchanan Winn, Jr. , one of the most famous mural artists in the world.
The right pylon depicts Texas history from the Conquistadors to the surrender of Santa Anna to Sam Houston.
The left pylon depicts pioneer days with covered wagons, cowboys and Indians, pointing up to modern Texas and her industries.
The wand top of the Goddess of Flight is a six-inch star of diamonds & emeralds locating Amon Carter Field.
An acre of 18-karat gold leaf was required to cover the mural."
(taken from this site)
Last edited by dfwcre8tive; 22 March 2007 at 05:55 PM.
Blueprint found for the original Dallas City Hall
07:07 PM CDT on Friday, May 25, 2007
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA-TV
WFAA-TV
Dallas history buffs are celebrating a surprising discovery - the blueprints for the original Dallas City Hall.
Built in the late 1880s - it was torn down just two decades later.
Until now, only a few pictures of it remained. Then city employees made an historic find.
It's a vault, inside Dallas Public Works, an architectural roll call of the city's past - maps, surveys and blueprints.
It also held a long lost treasure just waiting to be found.
The discovery was made a few weeks ago. They were cataloguing some of the old blueprints in here, opened up a metal tube, and inside, found a missing piece of the city's history: the blueprints for the original Dallas City Hall.
They are dated 1887, and are in mint condition.
"Every archivist likes to think there is a missing link in the puzzle and that there are hidden treasures everywhere. And I think we proved that with this plan," said John Slate, city archivist.
A Romanesque, gothic structure, three stories and a basement, pillars of polished sandstone, a cast iron staircase, with black walnut balusters, stained glass, hot and cold running water.
Details almost no one knew now revealed in original blue.
"I think it's incredibly important because there's almost no documentation on it, and the building itself has a fascinating history," Slate said.
At the time, Dallas was a growing metropolis - horse and buggy, electric streetcars and 34,000 people.
The city council met in rented space.
At one point, over a meat market.
The biggest city in the state needed something more.
"A new city hall represented a maturing of Dallas as a city and of its importance and stature in Texas," Slate said.
But little has been known of this structure, photos are few.
It lasted just 23 years.
St Louis brewing magnate Adolphus Busch bought it, tore it down.
In its place, the Adolphus Hotel, then the tallest building in the state. One historic gem, replacing another.
Dallas built another city hall several blocks away.
And in the 1970s, a new municipal palace took that structure's place.
The first City Hall - all but forgotten. But history has a way of surprising.
"You never know why or where things are going to pop up," Slate added.
And now, an important clue to the city's past, reclaimed.
VIDEO
Nice. Cool find and a good looking building.
“We shape our Cities, thereafter they shape us.”
This old house
Age did not save Argyle home
10:18 AM CDT on Thursday, May 31, 2007
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedconten....282d2e0d.html
ARGYLE — A demolition crew Wednesday tore down one of Argyle’s oldest buildings, a turn-of-the-century, wooden house where at least two county commissioners have lived.
LPS Partners owns the property where the house stood, and Greg Landrum, Argyle’s new mayor, is its managing partner.
“We tried to save it,” said Landrum, adding that the house was fall*ing in on itself, and “it was a hazard.”
Landrum said that he’d looked for someone to take the house and offered the home for free, but he had no takers.
The demolition surprised some residents, who were heartened by city leaders’ recent efforts to preserve old-town Argyle by putting special provisions in the town’s comprehensive plan.
However, former mayor and local historian Yvonne Jenkins said other buildings could suffer the same fate as the old house, since none of the structures, in*cluding the old bank building, have historical designations.
“People can do what they want with their property,” said Jenkins, who, herself, has re-done the historical Meadows Building. “I’m just terribly disappointed.”
According to county documents, LPS Partners owns adjoining lots that reach eastward toward the current Argyle United Methodist Church. The investment group also has a contract to purchase the church property, Landrum said. With that purchase, the group will have more than 13 acres of prime land in old-town Argyle with frontage on Den*ton Street and U.S. Highway 377.
Landrum said the group has no plans for the property, other than to hold it as an investment. Any parcel larger than 10 acres is eligible for “planned development” status, which gives developers more flexibility in parceling the property.
Crews started with the garage and other outbuildings on May 21 and began demolishing the back quarter of the home late last week.
Argyle native Mary Sullivan, 98, re*members being inside the house, which had tall ceilings and large rooms. Out*side, she remembered the house was once painted in baby pink and had elaborate, white gingerbread trim.
“It was so beautiful,” Sullivan said. “It looked like the finest house in Argyle.”
Sullivan’s parents were married in 1907 in front of the house by one of its first residents, the Rev. Robert B. Keith. As with many couples back then, they pulled up to the preacher’s house, and waited for him to come out on the front porch and perform the ceremony.
“It was just a custom then, to get real dressed up, and get married while sitting in the horse and buggy,” Sullivan said.
According to Jenkins, the house is not likely much older than the 1907 wedding, because a fire destroyed the city in 1895.
Historical records show that Keith, a former Confederate soldier, moved to Argyle after the Civil War. He served as a county commissioner from 1886 to 1883, and is buried, along with his wife, in the Graham-Argyle Cemetery.
During the early 20th century, the home faced Argyle’s original Front Street, Jenkins said. Subsequent owners — including Commissioner Joe Fincher, John and Emma Thompson, and Joe Hilger — sold off parcels to the north and south, including the land where the current First Baptist Church and post office now sit.
While she has seen other old homes torn down, with new, brick homes being put up in their place, Sullivan said she was sad to see this old house was being demolished.
“I hate for them to have to tear it down,” Sullivan said. “But that’s what they’re doing these days.”
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .
I know this is on the city issues thread, but I figured I would mention it here. I arrive d on the scene as the Old Sigels was falling to the Trackhoe of Billy Nabors demolition.
I have posted a few of them f them on my flickr page. Too whipped to post em here been a long active day
Check them out on the site below. Please tell me what you think.
Take care forum fans
Scott
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdorn
Scott Dorn
Hitting the streets with the cam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70886669@N00/
http://homepage.mac.com/sdorn/dallas_shots
http://www.myspace.com/177586541
Hadn't this strip center been remodeled recently? What is the new development?
Not sure I f wonder if anyone else knows
Scott Dorn
Hitting the streets with the cam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70886669@N00/
http://homepage.mac.com/sdorn/dallas_shots
http://www.myspace.com/177586541
Thought they said bank of america
just what we need replace a noteable Dallas landmark with another friggen BOA !!! BAAAHHH!!!!
Scott Dorn
Hitting the streets with the cam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70886669@N00/
http://homepage.mac.com/sdorn/dallas_shots
http://www.myspace.com/177586541
I'm sick of these bank branches too. But they don't have to all be built so horribly. There's a Chase brank on Oaklawn and Blackburn (I think) that's built pretty well...the front meets the sidewalk and parking is in the rear. There's also a bank on Lower Greenville that's built in a similar urban style. But I'm sure this will be another dull surburban style drive-thru.
Last edited by vman; 07 May 2009 at 10:30 AM.
Not that this area is ped friendly anyways, nor what the liquor store.
I've always liked this hotel, in a strange sort of way.
Who Knew There Were Residents at the Delux Inn? No Matter. It's Going Bye-Bye.
By Robert Wilonsky in News You Can Actually Use, Actually
Wednesday, May. 13 2009 @ 1:16PM
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa..._residents.php
I didn't know till I looked at the Dallas City Council's addenda for this week that for the last couple of months, the city's been the proud owner of the Delux Inn on Stemmons Freeway. (The expenditure was approved last September, for $3.18 million in 1998 bond money.) Alas, don't get too excited: Sure, the city bought the former Howard Johnson's -- which is on the tax rolls for $2.8 million, or almost three times its 2006 valuation -- but it's scheduled to be demolished at some point to make way for the Trinity Parkway. The city approved today spending almost $650,000 to help relocate 46 residents of the joint, among them a man named Jerry Booze.
According to D Magazine, the iconic Sigel's sign will shine again at their Addison location.
http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2009/0...me-in-addison/
Goodbye Delux Inn on Stemmons Freeway
9:55 AM Fri, Sep 18, 2009 | Permalink
Rudolph Bush/Reporter Bio | E-mail | News tips
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/a...-stemmons.html
The Delux Inn on Stemmons Freeway is no mas, at a cost of more than $4.7 million to City Hall.
At $23.99 a night, the Inn was a bargain for the right clientele.
But questions have swirled about the city's decision to pay so much for so little - especially since the purchase and demolition were in connection with the stalled Trinity River project.
As WFAA's Brad Watson reported in June, even longtime tenants of the Delux got a cut of the payoff, something required under federal law but that rankled just the same.
Finally, it's worth noting for the foodies out there that along with the Delux, the El Salvador Restaurant came down as well.
...
Art deco theater's fate being replayed across the city now
07:53 AM CDT on Friday, October 2, 2009
Steve Brown/Dallas Morning News
On the north side of Oak Lawn Avenue just west of Lemmon, there's a big vacant lot.
Folks going to Eatzi's often park there, and customers getting to the corner service station cut through it.
There's no sign that one of Dallas' best-loved art deco movie theaters – the Esquire – once stood there.
The 50-year-old cinema that was cherished by neighborhood residents and preservationists alike was knocked down to make way for a new office tower.
Alas, the poor Esquire was demolished for what was never to be.
The late 1980s real estate crash put an end to those development plans, and the property has sat empty to this day.
Twenty years later, we are seeing the same kind of story play out on the big screen of real estate deals gone awry.
...
From vacant home lots in Collin County suburbs to planned high-rise condominium tracts near downtown, a lot of local real estate is going to lie fallow for the next few years until the economy and property business get back in the saddle.
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I remember dozens of old "Project Coming Soon!" signs that just faded away after long seasons of rain and sun.
I've got a file cabinet full of fancy pictures of great buildings planned but never built.
So be it. That's the way the real estate business goes.
Still, I'll never forgive the bunch that paved the Esquire Theater and put up a parking lot.
Falling monument - Planned Cotton Exchange demolition raises questions on issue of preservation
The Dallas Morning News - Thursday, June 23, 1994
Author: Mark Wrolstad, Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx...C00B934DD580D0
An old and once-noble figure on the Dallas skyline is going into its death throes. And a city is resigned - even ready - to turn and watch.
The Dallas Cotton Exchange, the obsolete hub of an industry that built the city's economy, is again only days away from becoming a perfect symbol for King Cotton's demise in North Texas.
The 17-story tan brick and concrete building where cotton bales were bought and sold for much of this century is scheduled to be blown apart Saturday morning.
Two-and-a-half years after rescue attempts halted wrecking crews at the site, another stay of execution seems unlikely.
One of the final barriers came down at the 11th hour last month: The federal government, which opposed demolition because of asbestos pollution fears, sold the property's mortgage at a deep discount to one of owner J.L. Williams' investment partners.
Mr. Williams vows to push ahead, ending a drama that has raised questions about local commitments to preservation and a federal agency's handling of a historic building.
"That deal is just kind of like a bad dream," said Mr. Williams, a local developer since 1946. "It's just been a bad experience for me. I'm going to move on to something else."
...
"You'd like your city to have pieces that reflect your past and your reason for being," he said. "It's a shame to lose it."
He and others lament a lack of leadership in protecting the past.
"Dallas is behind the rest of the country in appreciating its heritage," said Trudy O'Reilly, head of the city Landmark Commission. "The building's reached the point where it's out of time."
The City Council did not pass enhanced tax abatements for inner-city housing renovations until October 1993, 21 months after demolition was stopped.
Delays have lasted so long that the city, which supported preservation two years ago, now says it's ready to file suit to bring the building down.
...
The 1926 office building, for decades Dallas' second-largest, is a gutted, windowless shell. It hasn't been used in seven years, in contrast to the boisterous trading and backroom card games that filled its handsome youth.
Those were the days when 10 percent of the world's cotton was produced within 100 miles of the Dallas, when the merchants, traders and bankers in the building influenced the price of a national commodity.
Now, the place once known as the Wall Street of the cotton industry stands as its own tombstone.
From the start
James Louis Williams planned to tear it down from the start.
He envisioned a magnificent new 52-story skyscraper when he bought an outdated office building at San Jacinto and St. Paul streets in January 1985 - just before downtown property values fell off a cliff and many financial institutions went with them.
He ended up in federal bankruptcy court, which in 1991 cut his debt on the structure from $15 million to $9.9 million. Meanwhile, the original lender on the building, First RepublicBank Corp., had failed in 1988, sending the loan to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
By late 1991, demolition crews hired by Mr. Williams finally went to work.
But city inspectors discovered that the Cotton Exchange's precast concrete panels - attached during the building's makeover in the early 1960s - had a high asbestos content and should be removed before implosion.
Then came a surprise.
"When the outer skin was taken off, (the original exterior) was amazingly still there," said Jim Anderson of the city landmark panel. "People didn't remember it."
That triggered preservation efforts, with Mayor Steve Bartlett persuading Mr. Williams to seek a buyer who would convert the offices to apartments.
The building was never designated historic, although the Texas Historical Commission determined in January 1991 that the property was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Eligibility is all that's needed to qualify a rehabilitation project for federal income tax credits.
...
Out with the old, in with the new - Dallas developers, preservatonists often at odds
The Dallas Morning News - Sunday, October 23, 1994
Author: Steve Brown, Real Estate Editor of The Dallas Morning News
http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx...C00B934DD580D0
With the bright lights and barricades, it might have been a motion picture debut or concert opening. But the small crowd gathered on Elm Street in downtown Dallas that rainy night in 1981 wasn't there to celebrate.
As construction workers and pedestrians watched, a wrecking ball pounded the ornate tile facade of the 80-year-old Kress Building, which had been recommended for nomination as a national landmark. Just hours earlier, developers obtained a demolition permit to tear it down.
The razing caught preservationists off guard. And it wasn't the first or last time.
Ten months before, a night-time wrecking crew smashed the cut-glass canopy and stone facade of the Volk Building, also nominated for landmark status.
Preservation efforts also failed with such landmarks as the Sanger Bros. and Woolf Bros. buildings, the Palace Theater, the Dallas Athletic Club, the Cokesbury Building and the Cotton Exchange.
The familiar battle was renewed this month when Dal-Mac Investments announced that it is planning to demolish the 46-year-old Dr Pepper building.
"There just hasn't been a lot of recognition in Dallas that preservation adds value," said Trudy O'Reilly, chairman of the Dallas Landmarks Commission. "That's the old Dallas developer attitude."
Developers, however, said that they don't understand why history should take precedence over economics. And building the new - not reusing the old - has often been the Dallas way, despite recent preservation victories in the West End and Deep Ellum.
Dal-Mac, after 14 months of study and meetings with historic and neighborhood groups, decided that it was not economical to reuse the Dr Pepper Building on Mockingbird Lane at Greenville Avenue, company officials said. The Richardson-based commercial builder said it is seeking instead to keep only the entryway and clock tower of the art moderne-style building and to tear down the rest for a new shopping center.
"I worked very, very hard to save that building, but it doesn't make sense," said Dal-Mac founder Herb McJunkin. "That building was built to house the Dr Pepper headquarters and to store barrels of Dr Pepper syrup and cases of Dr Pepper. To go in there and try to use it for other purposes doesn't work."
Mr. McJunkin said that low ceilings in the building and heavy, concrete construction make it too expensive to reconfigure. Because of the cost, retailers nixed reusing the building, he said.
Dal-Mac officials said they studied a proposal with AMC Theaters to convert the building into a cinema and retail space but found the renovation would cost twice as much as new construction. The projected income from the renovated building would be about half what a new structure would bring, according to Dal-Mac.
So more than a year after it bought the property from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Dal-Mac decided to ask the city for permission to knock down the building down and replace it with a two-story strip shopping center patterned after the old structure.
Good, Fulton and Ferrell Architects is designing the new shopping center, which would front on Mockingbird Lane between the new DART line and a Kroger supermarket building built on the east end of the original Dr Pepper site.
"We are going to try and simulate what's there," Mr. McJunkin said. "I tried to save the tower and the front facade of the building. We are going to try and dismantle some of the facade - the limestone - and reuse it."
...
While the loss of the Dr Pepper building would be a setback for local preservationists, Ms. O'Reilly said she isn't ready to concede defeat in the long war to retain some of Dallas' landmarks.
"I have been involved in preservation for more than a decade, and I have seen more progress in the last year than in the previous nine," she said.
Among the victories Ms. O'Reilly counts is the recent approval of a preservation incentive package by the city of Dallas and successful efforts to block demolition of the four Awalt buildings in the West End Historic District.
"We also have several major buildings downtown that have been purchased specifically to be restored as housing," she said. "I think we have begun to realize the value of these resources more than we ever did before."
Even so, out of the 40 downtown buildings that historic groups designated in 1980 as potential landmarks, half have been torn down. "And only three of those (former landmark) sites have buildings on them - the rest are vacant land," Ms. O'Reilly said.
Dallas' manifest destiny always has been to keep the dirt flying with new construction, even if it meant burying its landmarks, historians say.
"Dallasites have always felt that things needed to be bigger and better and tear down the old," said historian and preservationist Tom Smith. "If it keeps up, eventually the preservation folks will be out of business. There will be nothing left."
...
School district targets historic Oak Cliff church
12:28 PM Wed, Dec 16, 2009 | Roy Appleton/Reporter
Source: http://oakcliffblog.dallasnews.com/a...le-whammy.html
Call it a double whammy for Oak Cliff landmarks.
Earlier this year, the Dallas school district rejected preservationists' call to restore Adamson High School. Now the district has targeted the site of the former Oak Cliff Christian Church building at 10th and Crawford streets as part of a new Adamson campus. . .
More after the jump above. . .
With Demo Permit in Hand, DISD's Closer to Razing Historic Oak Cliff Christian Church
By Robert Wilonsky in News You Can Actually Use, Actually | Thu., Dec. 17 2009 @ 4:18PM
Source: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...hand_disds.php
. . .Katherine Seale, exec director for Preservation Dallas, just called with the news that DISD yesterday filed with building inspection for a certificate of demolition. . .
More after the jump above. . .
I don't know why they have to tear down a perfectly good historic building when there are plenty of other empty lots to place new tennis courts.
^ I do not know either. . .
Continuing along:
Link: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...t_disds_in.php
. . .Here's what worries preservationists, who've been attempting in recent months to get the building added to the National Register of Historic Places: The building was the original home of Oak Cliff Christian Church and a big part of 10th Street's legacy as "Church Street," as Rene Schmidt called it during a January talk at Dallas City Hall. According to Schmidt, the building was designed by Charles Bulger, the architect, who, with his son, was responsible for, among others, the Gaston Avenue Baptist Church (which became the Criswell College) and the 1907-constructed Praetorian Building at 1607 Main Street, considered the first skyscraper in the Southwest.
What else did Bulger design? The very former McKinney Avenue Baptist Church. . .
More info on the Oak Cliff Christian Church: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa..._medrano_n.php
Some more follow-up re: old Oak Cliff Christian Church building. . .
http://www.ooccl.com/index.php?optio...news&Itemid=50
I'm working on getting inside this place. With any luck will provide pics.
Where the Shell / Dickey's on McKinney Avenue is now.
MAP
Thyere is a new website out there called the wreckingball.net I have some photos of varoius jobs up there I shot in the area.
Scott Dorn
Hitting the streets with the cam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70886669@N00/
http://homepage.mac.com/sdorn/dallas_shots
http://www.myspace.com/177586541
BTW I like the thread thanks for making it
Scott Dorn
Hitting the streets with the cam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70886669@N00/
http://homepage.mac.com/sdorn/dallas_shots
http://www.myspace.com/177586541
They're Taking Down Oak Cliff Christian Church. But You're Welcome to Bid On a Piece Of It.
By Robert Wilonsky, Fri., Aug. 20 2010 @ 2:54PM
Categories: Development, Edumication News, Preservation
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...ak_cliff_c.php
Ten days before Christmas we broke the news: The Dallas Independent School District has purchased the old Oak Cliff Christian Church with the intentions of razing the 94-year-old 10th Street structure to make way for an athletic complex accompanying the W.H. Adamson High School redo. But court hearings and negotiations involving the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League and DISD attorneys resulted in a compromise: If the OOCCL could find a taker for the church by August 15, the district would gladly pocket the $1.2 million and walk away.
Alas, there were few nibbles but no bites, and so, by year's end, the building's coming down. Which isn't to say there still isn't time to save at least some of the structure: Michael Amonett, president of the OOCCL, sent Unfair Park the league's newsletter, which says attorney John McCall (a past OOCCL president) and recently elected school board trustee Eric Cowan have worked out a deal whereby interested parties can get "just a piece" of the church for a "nominal fee."
...
807 Elm (the Awalt Building) is going through the demolition process because it is a "threat to public health and safety." If this one is allowed to be demolished, none of the vacant structures in the West End Historic District are safe.
http://www.ci.dallas.tx.us/cso/meeti...-CBD-09-08.pdf
Demolition of Oak Cliff Christian Church underway today
10:54 AM Tue, Oct 05, 2010
Rudolph Bush/Reporter
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/a...ff-church.html
If you want to say goodbye to what's left of the former Oak Cliff Christian Church building, or if you like the sights and sounds of demolition, you might want to get on over to 300 E. 10th St.
The Dallas school district-owned building is going...going...
...
First Baptist Dallas implodes buildings to make way for renovation
by CASSIE CLARK
Dallas Morning News
Posted on October 30, 2010 at 10:06 AM
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/First...106370693.html
With a series of ear-piercing pops, nearly 200 pounds of dynamite brought down a portion of First Baptist Dallas in downtown this morning.
Cheers and whistles could be heard from a viewing area on the 14th floor of the Hartford Building where a small crowd including Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, First Baptist Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress and a bevy of photographers watched as four buildings were imploded.
A cloud of dust and debris filled the air, but thanks to the chilly and dense air, it was nearly clear within 15 minutes of the demolition, which is making way for a $115 million facility that will include a new sanctuary, an education building, a fountain plaza and 1 acre of public green space.
"There's no sadness," Jeffress said. "Just great memories."
...
I noticed last night that the Cobblestone Shoe Repair store on Central and Mockingbird is finally gone.
Yeah the demo crews have been tearing everything down for the SMU expansion across Mockingbird the only thing they haven't knocked down yet is the Bairds Bread building which they will get to soon cause everything else is practily gone now.
Another one gone in Expo Park...
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...aul_out_th.php
Landmark Commission Finally Decides That Owners of 807 Elm Street Can Raze the Building
By Robert Wilonsky, Mon., Dec. 6 2010 @ 4:20PM
Categories: Preservation
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...finally_de.php
Speaking of demolitions ...
Back in September we wondered whether 807 Elm Street's days were numbered. Park Cities Bank, which owns the building, had been trying to sell it for years but could find no takers. Said attorney Steve Metzger, repping PCB Properties, that was for one very good reason: "That building has some serious issues that likely prevent any rehabilitation." Razing it, said Metzger and the structural engineers hired to give the circa-1925 building a once-over, was the best -- and only -- solution for the parking lot across the street from El Centro.
The Landmark Commission's Central Business District/West End Task Force initially nixed the demolition request. But after a couple of months of thinking it over, the Landmark Commission just decided -- as in, moments ago -- to let 'em introduce the wrecking ball to the building after all. The vote was 8-6.
As one city official explains, today's vote begins a 30-day period during which anyone so interested may appeal the decision to the City Plan Commission. But if no one steps forward, the city will issue a certificate of demolition. At which point, boom.
...
Don't have photos but.... Mrs. Baird's Bakery is coming down.
Apartments on E. University and Sanhurst going down today (between Greenville and Skillman) - The Manor House and Spanish Steppes.
The Joule demolition + expansion is also taking place.
http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/sh...&postcount=488
Architect Has a Plan (Maybe) to Save Elm St. Buildings Threatened by Chávez Expansion
By Robert Wilonsky, Tue., Feb. 15 2011 @ 12:00PM
Categories: Preservation
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa..._expansion.php
2226 Elm Street, one of several buildings on the block threatened by the coming-soon street expansion
A few weeks back we were reminded that the city still has plans to widen César Chávez Boulevard from Live Oak to Commerce downtown. At which point we were also reminded that the plan calls for the purchase and demolition of several historic buildings along Elm Street -- chief among them 2226 Elm, which dates back to 1898 and once housed the Preston Loan Building. Preservation Dallas, though, it worried about that building and its two next-door neighbors, which made the 2010 most-endangered list: "These small buildings are some of the last late nineteenth and early twentieth-century structures remaining in downtown ... we encourage the City to explore options for moving the buildings out of harm's way."
Turns out, such a plan exists, if only conceptually at the moment: Craig Melde, a founding principal at Marilla Street-based ARCHITEXAS, would love to move them next the Dallas Farmers Market -- site of the old Harlan Building, which he spent the better part of the early 2000s restoring the only remaining original warehouse in that part of downtown. Melde says Karl Stundins in the Office of Economic Development called about a year ago and asked: Um, would he maybe, like, think about doing it again?
"I was the only one crazy enough to save buildings in the city, and they called and wondered if I'd be interested in relocating these buildings if they could be saved," Melde says. "And I said I'd like to move them to the Farmers Market district, which has TIF funding available. Any venture like this you'll need some assistance, otherwise it's not at all feasible."
That's right -- relocating. As in, picking up and buildings and moving them, oh, thataway. Easy.
Or not: The city's still negotiating with the buildings' owners, who, last we checked a few weeks back, weren't at all happy with City Hall's offers. And when that hurdle's cleared, there's the larger question of: Is it even possible to move these buildings? And if so, how much will it cost?
"I've got to look at the economics of it," Melde says. "I known larger buildings of this type have been moved. In San Antonio, the [Fairmount Hotel] down there was moved -- and it was a much larger brick building." Indeed: On April 4, 1985, the 3.2 -million-pound building was "lifted onto rollers, trussed with bands of steel and moved five blocks to its present location," at the cost of around $1 million.
But Melde's not committing to anything -- he says things like, "I'm gonna explore it" and, "I'm not saying it's definitely going to happen." But he, along with local preservationists, would hate to see the buildings razed -- for more lanes of downtown traffic, no less.
"And we might lose the buildings," he says, not wanting to raise anyone hopes. "I don't want to make money on this. But I don't wanna lose money on it either."
Elm Street's not having much luck lately...
Demolished:
1600 Elm Street
History: shoe store and tea room, modernized/remodeled in 1953.
(before; photo from DCAD)
(after)
Demolition Imminent:
1604/1606 Elm Street (Hite Building, named after owner/socialite Miss Rosa B. Hite)
History: W.T. Grant Department Store and community room
(before)
_____
2222 Elm Street
(before)
_____
2224 Elm Street
(before)
_____
2226 Elm Street
(before)
The movie studio site at Prestonwood and belt line is completely gone.
And a photo I took of the progress Wednesday:Preservation Dallas doesn’t want Tim Headington to implode Praetorian Building, asks city to ban the boom forever
By Robert Wilonsky
rwilonsky@dallasnews.com
6:32 pm on June 21, 2012
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2...-forever.html/
We’ve known for a long while now that Tim Headington’s Joule expansion plans involve the demolition of the 103-year-old Praetorian Building on Main Street, which is being stripped of its 1950s shell and dismantled for final demolition as you read this. We’ve also known for quite a while how Headington plans to dispose of the building: Implosion! Which, as WFAA-Channel 8′s Jonathan Betz noted a few weeks ago, has more than a few neighbors concerned that their buildings could be damaged when downtown becomes kaboomtown some Sunday morning this summer.
Hence the letter Preservation Dallas sent to City Hall today, in which interim executive director Carol Roark beseeches city officials to keep the implosion from happening. Writes Roarke, “We are not seeking to prevent the demolition of the Praetorian or the other low-rise buildings in the center of the National Downtown Historic District.” But they do want the city to stop allowing implosions downtown. Starting with the Praetorian.
...
Roark outlines three reasons the city needs to ban downtown implosions; you’ll find them in the missive below. But long story short, she writes: “Our investigation into the use of implosion as a means of demolition in other major cities tells us that most, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. New York and Philadelphia, banned demolition by implosion in their downtown areas ten or more years ago. Dallas needs to do the same. We ask that the City of Dallas forbid the implosion of the Praetorian and consider a permanent ban.”
I think I'm going to be depressed about now ......... scrubba
Ahh interesting move by Preservation Dallas to put in a impediment for developers to knock down older buildings. If Preservation Dallas can make it more expensive to knock down old buildings they can save more buildings than if they fight each and every one every-time a developer wants to take the easy way and just flatten a building and build something newer on the land. I'm sure there are plenty of people who dislike the idea of putting impediments in the way of developers because you could say it will push away some projects. I do like this idea initially, it sounds like a reasonable speed bump to encourage developers to come with unique uses for our older buildings.
Isn't this kind of like trying to save the Space Shuttle after it was already being dismantled (sad day)? I hope it works... but seems like it's too little too late :-(
Do they have a chance of saving it?
"I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction."
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